Holy Shit.
Feb. 9th, 2009 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanI am possessed of MAD, MAD SKILLZ. I am currently in the midst of planning a trip to Indonesia this March. The friend I am travelling with wants to make a three-day stopover in Beijing. I told her I would meet up with her in Jakarta, because while I love Beijing, I am not about to pay $164 in visa fees for 2.5 days in the country.
She is convinced that all residents of Japan are exempt from said fee. I am not, because come on, this is China and China never misses a chance to rip off $$$$$$ from anyone. Although I have shown her webpages supporting my contention, she remains unconvinced. Thus, I said I would call the Chinese consulate this afternoon.
I did, after expending much blood and sweat searching for the phone number (because come on, this is China and China never makes interacting with its government easy) and got a long-ass recorded message in Mandarin.
I understood a good 5% of it.
Let me repeat that: I understood a good 5% of it. After only 14 hours of formal study and maybe the equivalent of four months of indepenent study. Granted, it had to do with operating hours, but still. My brain was like, "Oh yeah. I know this vocabulary and I know this grammar. No worries."
To repeat: MAD SKILLZ, PEOPLE.
That will be all.
She is convinced that all residents of Japan are exempt from said fee. I am not, because come on, this is China and China never misses a chance to rip off $$$$$$ from anyone. Although I have shown her webpages supporting my contention, she remains unconvinced. Thus, I said I would call the Chinese consulate this afternoon.
I did, after expending much blood and sweat searching for the phone number (because come on, this is China and China never makes interacting with its government easy) and got a long-ass recorded message in Mandarin.
I understood a good 5% of it.
Let me repeat that: I understood a good 5% of it. After only 14 hours of formal study and maybe the equivalent of four months of indepenent study. Granted, it had to do with operating hours, but still. My brain was like, "Oh yeah. I know this vocabulary and I know this grammar. No worries."
To repeat: MAD SKILLZ, PEOPLE.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2009-02-10 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-02-11 05:03 am (UTC)